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# Ramesh’s direction. Cast includes - Ramesh, Jennifer Kotwal, Daisy Bopanna, Anirudha, Mohan, Netra.

# Jaggesh’s brother Komal has, unknown to me, good fan following. Crowd cheered, clapped, whistled when he came on screen. There is a sub-plot for him which is not in the original.

# Its a remake of “Maine Pyar Kyoun Kiya”. Knew this before going to the hall, but last time we had gone to the remake of Biwi No 1 - Rama Bhama Shama and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Comparitively, Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya itself is quite funny and improvising it little difficult.

# Its good, ok, but due to this I-wanna-be-director-of-remake-movies mindset of Ramesh, I somehow feel we have lost a terrific actor to an average director. I mean this movie could have been directed by anyone. But remember Ramesh, the actor of Amruthavarshini ?

# There are few scenes which are different from the original. And these are specifically good. I liked the club scene very much.

# Sweet & eye-candy cast - Jennifer, Daisy and Netra !

# There are very many scenes where the audience cracks up. And despite being remake, I enjoyed very much.

# Full marks to Daisy. That is one performance which is notches above the original of Sushmita Sen’s. Anirudh is slightly better than Sohail Khan. Ramesh and Salman are equally good.

# Picturisation is good. Hotte chitte song is good

# Verdict: Not as much a laugh riot as RBS but still a very good comedy movie. Hang out with entire family - a nice outing. Even better if you have not seen the original.

# This is a play of classic story of mistaken identities. There are two pairs of twins and they mix up.

# Good name of the play!

# In brief - 1.1 (one set’s one of the twins) and 2.1 are initially friends. They come to a city which also had was inhabited by 1.2 and 2.2 who had run away from their houses many years ago. In the event they mix up and 1.1 confuses 2.2 to be 2.1. And so on.

# It is sometimes surprising to note how many plays pay a remote tribute to Shakespeare. This too is one of them “Comedy of Errors”  and a tribute to Shakespeare was announced before the start.

# The title and the poster - which lists the cast like this Sihi Kahi Chandru, Sihi Kahi Chandru, Srinivas Prabhu, Srinivas Prabhu - is a small give-away which I noted randomly while standing in the queue outside.

# Few minutes into play, it’s too evident - Ulta pulta the famous Kannada feature film starring Ramesh and terrific Kashi. And Ulta pulta itself was inspired by an old Hindi movie.

# This Ulta-pulta kept coming back to mind, and the mind compares - even if I tell it not to! And as usual, comparison spoils it, sometimes. I am convinced, seen independently, this play is quite good.

# Comedy play it was and had good moments. Like

• 1.1 is a novel-worm - that too a fan of investigative novels. He cooked up various imaginative names of the novels and I almost cracked up every time.
• There is a sub-plot which explains these two guys running away from home. Since this was relatively new, was quite funny !
• Sihi Kahi Chandru whom I have become a good fan after his terrific performance in Sankramana. His role is not as full-fledged as it is in Sankramana but he is as good as possible. [ However Kashi was superlative ]. Also Chandru impresses in timing and delivery of dialogues.
• Srinivas Prabhu’s facial expressions were note worthy.
• Last mad run of mayhem seemed a bit longer - it continued even after we stopped laughing !

# Verdict: If you have not seen Ulta-Pulta, watch and enjoy. If you have, check out some other play from the same team - for eg Sankramana.

# My previous reviews of plays seen in RS could be found here.

This is a musical play using quite heavily the poems of “prema kavi” B R Lakshmana Rao to the music of C R Ashwath.

One part of the story is oft-repeated love story - the birth of the story, a third angle which was actually a misunderstanding, happy ending - in marriage. If there was any freshness it should be attributed to the natural performance of the lead pair. The story is intercepted with songs and dances - typical of a feature film - probably a reason story stretched with not much happening otherwise.

Second part is about the love leaving the couple after marriage and the minor fights that happen - probably due to lack of co-operation and the need to adjust. The fights lead to the point of separation but they realize and make up.

In between there are lots of digs about many social issues and many were cliched or already-heard-of.

C R Simha was quite jovial considering his age. He mimics a famous swamiji and his blessings is reserved for lovers Except for the lead pair - who gave natural good performance and a loud Ritwik Simha, others were passable. The other girls looked very happy and seemed to enjoy their role thoroughly. Sometimes it was little over-acting but better than average lazy acts by the boys. They looked out of place at times and looked inflexible.

Of course it is not possible to get Ashwath to sing for every show, but this recorded music was a huge put-off for me, given that I have enjoyed the plays for their direct interaction which includes the music playing at the side stage. Recorded music’s quality was also not good.

Overall, though touted as comical drama, did not make the audience laugh many times (unlike the ones where I really laughed till it ached). Probably also because it all looked either repetitive or cliched. But it did manage to make us smile few times - few dialogues and mannerisms by lead pair - and several messages were put across quite fine.

This was, again, a collection of three short stories by Vaidehi. Given the inclination/theme her stories has, the play too was an attempt to dive into woman’s mind.

There were three protagonists, the first one was most interesting for me. She was Shakuntala, the famous character of Kalidasa’s play. The director/playwright here takes few wonderful deviations (was reminded of the deviations by Farhan Akthar in Don) from the original. The play suggests that temporary memory loss was infact a lie told to the world and that the king just did not keep up his word. This challenges the self-respect of Shakuntala and she takes revenge - if she had wanted she could have shown the ring as proof, but she instead lies that it was lost in the river. And finally, when king tries to apologise, she doesn’t give in.

I liked the deviations because they were convincing and more practical than the original. And of course they are so consistent with the theme - self-respect and independence of woman is at the core.

Second story was of a lady who longs for love and marriage. I would not go into details but I felt it was treated a little over the top. Or may be because, I could not accept those reactions/feelings coming from a girl - we are very much used to see that from a boy just like many dialogues that she mouthed.

Two credits to this second story - one it had varied dimensions and density in the character. And while the former story invoked heavy dose emotions and was serious by nature - despite a romantic backdrop - this one evoked few smiles, so what if it combined pity with it.

Third story was a complex one. That, coming from me is saying a lot ! This character is a wife of a rich man, a poet herself but suffering by some complex. Probably an inferiority complex, or an identity crisis –somewhat similar in theme to other two- or even lack-of-attention syndrome. She indirectly questions the patriarchal society and walks out of her marriage and settles with someone who she thinks would love her.

While one lady performed other two ladies played supporting and it was interesting to watch a supporting cast don the main role in the next part, well & differently. Music support was quite simple - by the same person traditional harmonium for Shakuntala and modern keyboard for other two.

The play overall was quite low on entertainment value, but I appreciate the effort that went into it. However I guess it was quite interesting to art lovers like Dr.URA whom I spotted in the audience.

Posts of other few events I attended would follow.

Heegadre hege - A play.:
This is a funny play formed after putting together 3 different stories of T. Sunandamma. One talks about the Kannada vs English, one dream about winning the lottery, another about the life of writers, life after retirement. All make us look at the situation in light fashion. Lakshmi Chandrashekar and Sundar performed.
Since the play was sponsored by Kannada station on WorldSpace “Sparsha” , there was half an hour long introduction about the shows being aired in that station. It sounded pretty impressive.
A good review is found here.

This was an awesome play, one of the best ones I have seen. This is a Hindi play translated to Kannada and directed by S.Surendranath - director of “Nodi swami navirode heege” movie. The play also marks the return (or debut ??) of Girija Lokesh to stage after many years.

Its quite easy to see why I like this very much because it was so easy for me to identify with it. The stage setting is white everywhere¹ - one white painted stool, a white painted chair and table, one white cloth on the floor. There is a table fan sitting idle at the corner of the stool and there is only one time it is ever used - and what a stunning impact it leaves. There is a light bulb hung and just like the fan, this is lit up only once.

My intepretation about the usage of white so prominently - other than to depict widow’s saree for a cultural reason or to show simplicity in the father’s character - is that, it suggests how only one sided their views are. No black and white - no two possibilities, no two explanations - just one -and one’s own - belief.

There are three characters in the stage - but they never come on stage at once (except for a second, mother and son come together) and I can easily call it a collection of three mono-acts and monologues. But the acts are tightly coupled.

The intent is actually to show how one’s actions are in this family, why according to him his actions are like the way they are and how another person in the family views it differently. Some views and counter-views like that, slightly highlighting generation gap.

The first scene is that of a widow, cleaning the cotton, describes how her husband has been admitted to hospital, how he died. In next few scenes with the mother, she recalls how her husband had reacted at his retirement and going a little back how he had dreamt and built his house and few other smaller details. She also narrates how her son behaved earlier and how he reacted in hospital.

In between her many appearances are present one stellar performance by SihiKahiChandru in the role of the father. It was the longest monologue - almost an hour and one should see to believe it. There were plenty of opportunities to go out of sequence, or to use our own lines as long as it made sense (but I doubt he did that !), but still it was one superb show.

Then comes that of son’s, acted by Manjunath Hegde, another class act. During his part is the success of the play, for the very same audience who had accepted and clapped to every action of father as right, claps and agrees again to that of son’s. At this point director had clearly succeded in making the audience realize how different the viewpoint is and how both can be right.

Both father and son, though rant and talk seriously, have audience in split, or rather in crack. Yes, even the issue is not fun, it is shown in the lighter vein giving the audience great comic relief.

Mother’s is not very strong character for the drama. She appears few times but with shorter durations compared to other two. Also I failed to understand why her part is set in the present while the son’s and father’s are actually set in the past. Though the mother’s role adds sorrow, sympathy and also it shows her as a strong person. She keeps calm when her husband dies and she was calm earlier too - somehow managing both polarities in son and husband. This is so very typical.

Many incidents like the collection-repair of locks, lazy-irresponsible son, wearing pant only after reaching college, house repair issues and various various other things are so very common in normal household - which is the reason audience too enjoyed it! Keeping the door open, not switching off the lights, lock , returning home early etc were some of the very very real life scenarios. Nicely captured and presented. One of the superb funny lines is when son is questioning his father’s direction to return home because of the increasing crimes in the city. Son ponders “If I return home earlier, will the crime outside reduce? “ So tongue-in-cheek !

Even though the son’s views are totally opposite to that of father’s, once his father expires he follows his father’s actions in a hyper-active or maniac fashion. There is the irony, there is the highest point for the play and there is so much untold meaning in those small actions and thats where the play ends. (Audience expected more but it made perfect sense to end!)

No music (except water dropping sound in the background), no lighting effects, no changes in the sets, it is the most simplest arrangement for a play I have seen!

Overall it is a combination of vyangya, tarka, vidambane and haasya.

After having told all this, I still haven’t told you anything. This play is a must watch according to me and you can watch it at Rangashankara on 26th May 7:30.

27th May 7:30

27th May 3:30

Misc:
1. One old couple talking was loud enough to hear to entire audi and of course to observation of artists too. Even continued stares from the neighbours did not discourage them from talking loud. Another lady, yawned making audible sound, which was too another irritant.
2. In another play too, there were two ladies who laughed almost hysterically and sometimes when not needed. RS people take enough care to silence/switch off the mobile phones, what could be done to these throats ?

1. Tide could utilize the oppurtunity (just like they did to few movies) and sponsor the play so that more people could watch it! [back]

Warning - Spoilers: Story and Ending revealed.
Story:
The story, in a broad sense, is like any other gangster movie which has this protagonist who is forced into the underworld due to poverty/helplessness etc. Like Jogi, this movie also has two threads running in parallel – or even more than Jogi here the emotional line is quite strong. What is impressing is that both the parts are given equal footage and both run without hurting the flow of the other. What stands out in this movie is the honest performance by Vijay. His dialog rendering is so simple and natural that it feels we are actually watching a live act rather than a show in the hall. I would not say Vijay has amazing acting skills as this movie did not require him to experiment or to depict something different – it just required him to be honest. It would be interesting to see how he would suit in a comedy or some other kind of roles. Talking of comedy, his many dialogues do invoke laughter – though unintended from the character. To that extent he seems to have good timing to click in a comedy role. Rashmi manages well to look innocent, look confused and cries well. And a special mention to the newly found supporting role – he reminds me of someone, but not able to remember.

Coming back the story, Vijay is an innocent village guy, due to some circumstances happens to come to city and comes in touch with underworld guys. He does not know them /their illegal work but joins theand beats . The story is quite complicated to narrate. How Vijay gets into the gang, how he gets beaten to get money, how – there are so many characters ! Someone is waiting to is waiting to fix up /take revenge on the other and how Vijay fits in the scene. Quite complex things and interwoven events to narrate.

In between this, he saves the girl from kidnappers, she has no place to go, so both of them start living in a s bus-turned-house. He tries to earn money for himself and help her study. Bothe develop a liking for each other but meanwhile the sword is ready above Vijay’s head.

Ending revealed ahead:
Caught between the gangsters and between police, both for the acts he didn’t do, Vijay faces danger of getting killed. Rashmi decides to end both their lives.

The supporting cast of friend is good. Also inspector in his tough cop act sends shivers down the spine. Some open ends remain – Inspector had first agreed to save him but later suggests to shoot him down as soon as he is seen. Inconsistent. But again at the end he says he would not have taken action – there clearly was a way director could have saved the protagonist from killing himself when he had done no crime. But for cinematic effects and to evoke sympathy, he is made to die and then later inspector too shows signs of mercy. Another open end is about her preparation to write exams but that is not completed.

Minus points include – same old story framework – innocent man with a machchu¹. The highlights of the movie include fast pace, songs, picturisation, lyrics², sharp dialogues and performances. Clever usage of additional characters to the plot. And of course good acting and direction - quite a few things like romance, actions are packed well but yet nothing is over done.

1. success of this has resulted in a parade of other such ones like masti by upendra, shivraj kumar again, sudip and who not. The posters tell half the story – man with a machchu. [back]
2. I am not impressed by what these VJs, RJs say about the song “Kariya I love you” that it has given confidence to people in town with dark complexion. It is one of the nonsenses I have heard – how do they know the confidence has increased, why if in a song of a movie a girl’s role says I love you, the confidence should rise for other dark people – that says nothing – first of all did she love him because he “was” dark etc arguments suddenly show how silly the claim is. I am not saying movies/songs shouldn’t mean something to people, for eg what can inspire people or increase confidence is like a song in My Autograph – araluva hoovugale neev alukadiri or say a song like – aagadu yendu kailagadu yendu kai katti kulitare sagadu kelasavu munde. This kariya song lacks any intent and is just created for rhyming.
   When I come to lyrics, first when heard this song I cringed – usage of English words , use of words simply to help rhyming – who have you seen swearing on Karunadu when he is expressing his love or worst since when did people start swearing on “bili moda” – Gods will really get angry for having forgotten them in this swearing game. But this song’s music – especially the flute – is quite catchy and later lyrics mean something when seen from the context of the movie – like he says he is an illiterate and she is like mother to him – after losing his mother he treats this girl as a companion just like his mother was and lyrics catches it quite well. And when I saw the movie, I was totally awestruck with some of the lyrics – especially the simple, rhyming and meaningful songs like nodayya kwaate lingave sung amazingly well by MD Pallavi. The other songs like “preeti maaye husharu” or even “ee paapi duniya” or “saala madiyadru tuppa tinnu” – a new proverb coined by our lyricist ?! score surprisingly well on lyrics scale. They are set to good music too but what is more important is that these songs perfectly fit in the story like hand-in-glove.
   [back]

Yes, its more than 100 days since the release and almost everything that had to be said about the movie must have been said. But should that be a reason to stop me from writing on my blog ? ( After all its my blog and there are few regular readers, who too will skip through this, so why bother ? ).

First of all the movie is near to me for it invoked DDLJ feelings. I can not clearly mention what it was, but that DDLJ magic was the prime reason that I kept going back to the movie. (Even though the movie was already a hit by the time I had watched it, for me it did not matter - one I was far away in Chennai not being aware of various talks about the movie second I kept myself from reading anything related to it, so it was still fine. Also I am very clear of not taking any prejudices with me to watch a movie). By DDLJ, I do not remark about the striking similarity - almost a love at first sight, girl being wary of the boy initially, girl starting liking the boy, boy showing his good-boy image to girl’s parents while preparations for girl’s wedding is going on, boy re-affirming girl that he would carry her away, entry of the bride-groom and that scene where hero takes heroine’s father on a walk - I could almost see a SRK-Amrish Puri in white dhotis trying to feed nuts to kabootars. The similarities might not be striking for others but it was for me. And due to all this, I had thought I know how this is going to end. At one point I thought the rabbit was there to do some sort of magic like the dog in HAHK. Hero’s father is left out after first few scenes (I had expected him to return like Anupam Kher in DDLJ). ¹ I kept waiting for the hero to impress the girl’s parents and to take her away. And at first I was disappointed it did not happen. I do not know whether it was a conscious deviation and I do not see anything against that climax too (I mean I believe even that would have worked out in the box office but since now people have seen this version they claim this is the biggest factor for the success). On the second thoughts, I like this climax too though the cine-freak in me was expecting yet another climax - that of him jumping off the cliff. One is a decisive happy ending, other a decisive sad ending and one more indecisive one where people are free to attach their own philosophical meaning - and that is the one which has worked !

Before I get into my commentary² let me say movie works for me.

Flow:
At the first look, nothing (nothing dramatic, actually) actually happens in the movie for the most part. Just like DDLJ. We see them romancing but nothing looks like progressing on that front. No other event like the “turning point in cricket” happens so that we can expect this is how it is going to proceed. There is no drama. Contrast this with eg Nenapirali and you probably get what I mean. Yet, this movie works. Just like DDLJ did. Only one reason can be attributed to it is the consistent flow and the narration.

Songs and lyrics : I had listened to songs many times before I saw the movie. The lyrics as everyone knows by now are just excellent. I was in awe after listening to the words but once I knew it was from a poet - Kaykini - my surprise ceased. He has affirmed one of my beliefs that “rhyme” is not “the most” or “the only” thing that makes songs good. I have seen some go out to create rhyme but somehow trading the simplicity of the meaning in the process. In this case, the meaning and simplicity was given the most importance and how! Set to brilliant music by Mano Murthy, the songs of this movie have been the propulsion for the success. I say, propulsion, because however good they were, they only got the people into theaters and later made them relive the movie by listening to songs but that should not take away any credit from what happened in between. Some observations - in one of the songs, there is “saavinallu naguvuda balla” which made me assume that hero would die andit would turn to be a tragedy. I was prepared to see the hero die and in part this spoiled a little of my experience - the actual tragedy is on a different level to his death, second since I was expecting that to happen every other time and anytime. The lyrics should have actually read “novinallu naguvuda balla”. And “anisutide yeko indu neenene nannavalendu..mayada lokadinda nanagage bandavalendu” immediately reminded me of “kabhie kabhie mere dil mein khayal aata hai ..ki aise tujhko banaya gaya hai mere liye..sitaron mein bas rahi thi kahi..zamein pe aye ho mere liye”. I am not saying its copied or even inspired but I strongly feel this might be an intentional tribute to that song which is anyone’s favourite ! Two more ingredients to songs that get a kudos are picturisation and choreography. Talking of choreography I didn’t quite expect “punjabi” set-up for “suvvi suvvali” song.

Picturisation:
When it comes to picturisation, there is no two ways about it. Its just as excellent as it could get. With the backdrop of rain, scenic beauty looks almost competing with the colourful costumes people have worn.
Performances and dialogues :
‘Comedy time Ganesh’, the household name it is by now, is one single element without whom it is difficult to think about the movie. True, all departments have shown results but its on Ganesh’s shoulders the screen magic had lied entirely. And how he manages ! With his next-door-boy looks, with his honest acting, that ever present smile which alone must have won him all female fans and most importantly, for me - dialogue delivery skills with good timing. He has the qualities that make a good hero though it would be interesting to see him in a real sorrow role. Heroine Sanjana Gandhi was effective in few scenes and complimented well in others. Though, an extra-ordinary performance was not expected by that role anyways. The supporting cast were not bad too -Anant Nag donning an important role - gave a natural performance. The dialogues were quite refreshing - they were bereft of cliches or used analogies. In fact that drunken dialogue -”tale na kerdu, gaya aagi cancer etc” was very unexpected!!³ But some jokes - like the one he uses to lighten her mood - did not work for me.

And for the sake of completion

Preetham is a kiddo with no near future goal. He falls in love with Nandini at the first sight. He decides to search for her. Accidentally they keep coming across each other. When he finds her he shares his feelings for her. But she refuses. He warns her if he finds her next time then he will marry her. He feels disturbed when he comes to know she is getting married. He decides to go away from her. If that was the case the movie would have said to end, but it doesn’t! Must watch movie.

That was an extract from my bro - who has been too happy for the number of comments and hits his posts on this movie are attracting.

This post is already so long and I haven’t even started to talk about how the climax does make sense and how I realized it even better after I saw almost a replica of these events unfold in front of my eyes. I haven’t even talked about the romance/love part of the story – after all it was “hani hani prem kahani” - how their “falling in love” , expressions were different and different feelings/attitudes of hero, the villain, the girl and I haven’t also commented how sudden & illogical for the girl to get carried away at the end – she should have tried to know the truth and how better it would have been if she was made a conscious partner in the decision rather than making her a scapegoat and making her take the result not understanding the whole picture/point. I just made a mention to say that I do see “the movie” not just the “its ingredients, making and execution”.

And finally kudos to the director who has managed to put together good pieces of work into one great piece of work.

1. You need not tell me I am too much into DDLJ, I know it [back]
2. yes thats what I would call my reviews from now on, as “commentary” makes more sense than “reviews”. [back]
3. Though this talking matters of heart only after getting drunk has been used quite a lot of times in movies like HDDCS, DTPH. I can’t help thinking - Help of liquor is taken even to start telling and when one doesn’t get the girl, he again drinks - Whats with lovers and drinks ?! [back]

ಇಂದು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಏಕೀಕರಣದ ಸುವರ್ಣ ಮಹೋತ್ಸವ.

ಹೊರನಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಳಿತಿರುವ ನನ್ನಂತವರಿಗೆ, ಇ-ಅಂಚೆ ಮುಖಾಂತರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದರೇ ಏನೊ ಒಂದು ಥರ ಖುಷಿ

ಜೈ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಮಾತೆ.

PS: Pradeep has a good post and is going to follow up with a post each day about Karnataka/Kannada. Am excited. Already has a good post on Yakshagana. Keep hooked

Nenapirali is a debut effort from Engg graduates Ratnaja (director) and Ajay Gouda (Producer). It has flashes of brilliance - both at technical level and at artistic level. More about that later.

Story Overview: Ekanth and Indu are seeing each other for sometime. But practically Ekanth is too busy to see Indu on a regular basis. This forces Indu to lie Ekanth that her parents might oppose their marriage. Her plan backfires when Ekanth devises a plan - according to which Prakash, his friend should go around Indu, which should unease Indu’s parents and they should be readily accepting Ekanth!
Due to this, Prakash spends more time with Indu and she starts liking him for he is naturally likeable. Prakash clarifies that he lacks any such feelings for her. And Ekanth marries Indu.
You guessed an end ? Its just the interval. That is one of the highlights - this packs so many events in just 2 and half hour that bollywood revolving around the same confusion for over 3 and half hours is pitiable. Lets go back to the story. Now Bindu, Indu’s sister heads off to assist Prakash in Mangalore where they slowly fall in love with each other.
Till now everything was fine, but movies can’t just be fine. So there is a twist and then some more crisis. To be fair to the story-writer, after some thoughts myself, it is really difficult at that point not to introduce a turn and make it proceed and finish on a note. Also to the team’s credit, the developments are in sync to prove the subtitle/tagline - its about hearts.

Now to other points. Technically it is a fine product. Crisp editing, fast pace, clear characters, an unbelievable cinematography, attractive costume designing, experimental choreography, meaningful-but-not-heavy dialogues and tight direction.
The one department that disappoints* is the lyrics that are like dialogues. Hamsalekha, the lyricist fails but the music is refreshing. Repeated listening has softened my stand on this but still….

Due to the youth behind, there is a infectious freshness feel to the whole of the film.
Prem is faithful to the character. He shows lot of promise. Except during his dancing, I liked him otherwise.(If this is remade to Tamil, Sidharth is ideal fit) Both the girls (Vidya and Varsha) have good potential. Indu’s oppurtunistic role didn’t have much to offer to Vidya but she has done well. Ananth Nag, as a cool father, lights up the screen. With some more flesh to the character, this could have been the perfect supporting role that is both meaningful and required to the plot. It looked little hurried at the end, as the family members were left out of the context.

But, almost till the end, the movie is like a peom recited dearly from the very poet. Narration is what stands out, drama has been dumbed down to nothing and punctuated with songs, flow is super. If there is one thing that is worth applauding than the poetic narration, it is the locales. Picturesque. The scenic beauty, music and performances make it a beautiful movie.

* Disappoints “me” - because I heard/read it to be great. I know the reason for that feeling though- given the Kanglish lyrics these days, given the fast food lyrics by the likes who churn out bin ladenu, maza maadu, etc…But I accept that it was Hamsalekha who was the pioneer of that generation)

After a short hiatus, its time to update. There has been no dearth of topic to write all this while, but just could not manage to update. Infact it has almost become a habit to keep piling the toblog list for a while and then either summarise or to just leave it.

My Autograph:

After a shaky start, the narration just gets poetic. With its slow but relevant proceedings it keeps getting better.

It rocks. For 2 hard hitting reasons. One a story could not have got more real. Second the authentic performances (it may not be an overstatement to say I could feel the characters breathe).

Having heard about the Tamil version, I had confidence to take the family with me to watch this in Kannada directed by the actor himself, Sudeep. This is his second direction and sadly both are remakes. And he joins the group of other director-heroes in Kannada Cinema, which has no shortage for them - Ravichandran, Ramesh, Upendra(though he is a director turned actor unlike others). Anyways considering there are enough chances to spoil a remake too[Telugu remake didn't do well at boxoffice], he has done a good job.

But the strong point about the film is the solid script which when just narrated is enough to captivate you. The movie has come out as a visual poem with almost no rough edges[except perhaps the shaky start]. And a strong intuition tells me that this story is real, if not director’s someone else’s

It starts with an intention of the guy to invite all his old friends for his marriage. The nostalgic memories of high school is the first phase ended when he invites his school friend-hearthrob, now a poor jaded lady.

Second phase is set in the scenic Kerala, where he had to relocate. A crush in college and it turns intimate, but before it could turn into a relation, he has to move away.
And this has deteriorating effects on his mind, body and his relations with his family.
Third phase is a mature friendship with a lady who supports him, encourages him to find his identity and much more (like shows right direction to him when he is confused).

And all of them , along with other pals, teacher attend his marriage - which is, with sufficient hints let me conclude that it is, an arranged one !

And if that is not real, what is ?

This is just a skeleton and main story. But cinema adds flesh, blood and soul. And colour, pain and joy. The acting, picturisation and songs blend well.
One sentiment keeps making its presence at regular intervals and thats what makes it special - and NO, its not Love. It is empathy. You empathise with hero, his parents, his heroines and almost everyone. And if you are me, you will empathise with Madhava’s character too!(both initially and later).

The choice of actors for the characters is very apt. I liked those juniour artistes - the boy had just perfect amount of mischief and curiousity in his eyes. Performances were also touchy with Sudeep handling the double mantle(director-actor) easily. His acting has matured a lot now and he does not go overboard in the performance which had so many such oppurtunities, instead he made it look very natural. Three cheers to three girls ;-)[Meena,Sridevika,Deepu]. The supporting cast [Srinivas Murthy, Rashmi Kulkarni, Yathiraj, Hirish, Laxminarayan, Vishwanath] too looked fine.

Some cribs: 1. There should be a better (Kannada) title possible.
2. Audience were taken granted to follow Malayalam. Though it sounded like Kannada, it was logical and though important part was later translated, either a subtitle or a background narration should not have been difficult or caused problem.

From the information in the comments section of my earlier post, Yeshwant Sardeshpande’s plays “Sahi Re Sahi” and “Dil Maange More” are being performed this weekend (25th-26th March) in H N Kalakshetra, Jayanagar. Interested people, go grab a seat. Laugh till you drop and let me know your feedback in this comments section !

And thanks anon informers !

online newspaper - idukannada.com;
Not to forget sampada.net

KannadaAudio has some wonderful collection of audio. Apart from film songs, there are other collections like - devotional songs, folk songs, Yakshagana, Harikathe, Drama, Vrathas, Discourses etc. Whats more there is also 24 hour radio channel ! It is a good site to be bookmarked for Kannada Music. My downloading like there is no tommorrow costed me a whopping bill (though it is another matter that they messed up with the calculation and I was within limits.)

I searched for freeware recorders to record/rip those .ra files, so that I can play them on my Music system. But none of the freewares are good. They either record while playing (which would take a hell lot of time and sometimes end up in error), also I can not time division multiplex those recordings. Without any option I had to look at shareware. A peek at the shareware gave me a good software which is primarily a downloader - HiDownload. One useful feature was it could download the multiple links in the playlist/script. It came with a ra2mp3 converter (again a shareware) but does the job well.
Two bugs I noticed: The converter to mp3 would delete the earlier mp3 present at that path before it starts new conversion (which meant I had to constantly move files to other folder). HiDownload while downloading the links, does not put the corresponding files into the folder specified but puts in the default location.

The publicity and the popularity that Jogi has gained made me curious to check it out in the theater. Impression : Not bad to Good.

The film starts off with a mother searching for her Mahadesha in the midst of Bangalore city. Through cleverly placed flashbacks we come to know that her son was a Jogi, following on his father’s footsteps. Their already troubled life due to deteriorating health of father worsens after his death. Being unbelievably innocent, Jogi, sets out to Bangalore in search of work that would keep his mother happy. Unfortunately few turn of events result in his arrest, an attempt to kill him and a group of people to protect him. In short, he is drawn into the big bad underworld.
Meanwhile a journalist student is in search of a sensational story bumps into the mother. She listens to the story of her son. In parallel, she also gets to know the story of Jogi. But she is late in realising both are same. Search for son and search for mother continues.

Do they meet ? If yes, how and when? What happens to the underworld and the baddies ? To know the answers to the above, watch it on screen! (Hey..this is my first conscious attempt to not-to-be-a-spoiler).

Shivaraj Kumar comes out with an impressive performance with the dead and sad look on the face. The jogi outlook suits him as well as that of don’s. But the best part is the way he effortlessly breaks into dance (huli kunita). As mother, Arunadathi Nag breathes life. Jeniffer (of “Just Mohabbat” which was coming on Sony) wears good outfits and does her part well. The songs except for 1 or 2 are completely forced into movie. The picturisation of Ello jogappa in Rajastan (Jaipur to be precise) is beautiful. The music by Gurukiran has caught on with the public but I like only Ello jogappa. Bin Laden/ Bill Clinton song, though has foot stepping music, is marred by bad and insensible lyrics.

Direction is good (mostly because of a tight narrative and intelligent flashbacks), ably supported by slick editing. What was significantly different in the treatment is presence of the emotional angle (feel that never ends) and it keeps moving with the bloodshed angle in parallel.

What I do not understand - Is there really so much underworld activity in Bangalore that there is flurry of movies on those lines like Kalasipalya, Majestic etc
And what is the relevance of running around and using sword/Hatcher instead of automatics.

hendathiyobbalu (a wife)
K.S.Narasimha Swamy

If a wife is present at home, that is crore rupees for me
If a wife is near me, I am also a soldier

If a wife is present at home,it is full moon holige light
If she wants to go to her maternal home, I am angry like anything
One who is with me, one who has not left me, cooks very well
Possessor of pony tail that resembles snake, where has she come from !

It should be a dream that there are ways to Kabbiganooru
If anyone gets to be wealthy there, it should be me
In the star light and filled palace, beautiful girl may roam
She would be smiling next to me on throne

Where are visitors from the palace of Chandiranooru, now ?
And where are the descendents from the doors of silver fort
In the company of wife, richness and poverty, are no fears
Man is not a victor, if he has not experienced the love of a wife.

Ps: Yuk, this exposed my ignorance and illeteracy in both the languages. I am sorry and I apologise to KS Narasimhaswamy.

Original Kannada Song:

hendathiObbalu

Above image and writing is courtesy Baraha and Guruprasad.